


Never a Choice (You Were There All Along)

by Harmako



Series: What Could Have Been (Or What We Might Have Had) [1]
Category: Xenoblade Chronicles
Genre: Alternate Ending, Alvis isn’t really mentioned, Ambiguous/Open Ending, But he’s there, Canon Divergence, Canonical Character Death, Ending is up to interpretation, F/M, I love both ships and I couldn’t choose, Implied Relationships, Just let Shulk be happy, Light Angst, M/M, Major Spoilers for Xenoblade Chronicles, Two guys have a friendly chat in the void, neither could Shulk apparently, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-05
Updated: 2020-07-05
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:28:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,318
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25096123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Harmako/pseuds/Harmako
Summary: Zanza had always been there. He was Zanza, and Zanza was him. His choices had been Zanza’s choices, whether he knew it or not. Whether helikedit or not.Now, it was time for Shulk to make his own choices.
Relationships: Fiora/Reyn/Shulk (Xenoblade Chronicles), Fiora/Shulk (Xenoblade Chronicles), Reyn/Shulk (Xenoblade Chronicles), Shulk & Zanza (Xenoblade Chronicles)
Series: What Could Have Been (Or What We Might Have Had) [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1835419
Comments: 2
Kudos: 26





	Never a Choice (You Were There All Along)

**Author's Note:**

> My first time posting here! I’ve been a very enthusiastic oneshot writer for quite a long time, and have even written several shorter works of fanfiction, but I’d never worked up the courage to actually upload anything. ^^’ 
> 
> I recently finished Xenoblade Chronicles (Definitive Edition) and am now absolutely obsessed with the story and characters. I’d be lying if I said the game hasn’t become one of my favourites. I was particularly intrigued by the ending, and decided I wanted to write a short snippet of a bit of a different scenario where there could’ve been an interesting exchange between Zanza and Shulk, right before Zanza’s demise. Zanza was always there, right? I do apologize if there’s any mistakes/any of the characters are a little OOC. I tried my best :"D
> 
> The mentioned relationships are only really hinted at in here. Hope you enjoy!

When Shulk lunged for Zanza the final time, time stopped.  
The blur of stars and space around the boy and his false god tumbled to a halt, the battle cries of Shulk’s comrades, his _friends_ , faded away. Their forms dissipated into background noise, Shulk’s vision narrowing to a point.  
In an instant, there was only creator and creation.  
Wielding the True Monado, Shulk’s cry of defiance quickly died away as the mythical sword slowed, carved through the air in an arc toward Zanza’s battered body, and then stopped.

Zanza’s eyes flickered into view again, his armour, reminiscent of the Bionis, cracked, crumbled, and disappeared. There he let himself be, vulnerable, weak, and defeated. His intimidating, extravagant form diminished, stripped to his roots. A man of flesh and blood.  
Even then, in those final moments, the ones which would prove to be his last, the manipulative deity made one last attempt at liberation.

“You still insist on my demise, right to the very end, I see.” The false god met Shulk’s gaze, the world shrinking until it was only the two of them. “It appears I made a grave error in the choosing of my vessel,” Zanza sighed, almost wistfully, “I’d never thought…”

Shulk, still gripping the True Monado with a fervour, narrowed his eyes. “You’d never thought _what_ , Zanza?” He spat the god’s name out in disdain, “Enough of these games!” 

Zanza was silent for a moment.  
“It had never crossed my mind that the weak-minded, hesitant, frail boy, the one who was simply fortunate enough to be graced by my presence at the foot of Ose Tower… I’d never thought _you_ would ever be more than an afterthought following the execution of fate.” He laughed coldly.

Shulk’s face twisted in silent fury, his grip on the divine weapon in his hands a grounding presence in the face of the cruel creator's lies. “You know nothing about me. You know nothing of what I am capable of.” He straightened his posture, blue eyes burning with a passion. “This very event has proved that much.”

Zanza regarded him for a moment before inclining his head. “This may be of truth… but you are mistaken, my disciple—”

Shulk interrupted him sharply, “I am _not_ your disciple. I will never bow to you.”

Zanza continued as if the Heir to the Monado had never spoken. “I know everything about you, Shulk. I know your deepest fears, your truest desires. You have never been free of me… and you never will be.” He smiled thinly, his gaze cold. “Strike me down, free this world, as you so desperately wish, and yet a piece of me will always remain.”

Shulk clenched his teeth, fighting to keep control of his anger. “Lies, all of it. I won’t listen to you, Zanza. Never again. I… _we_... know what you are, now. A wicked god with no remorse. A creator who feels he has the right to take away innocent life at his every whim. Your words mean nothing.”

“A most impressive statement, truly.” Zanza sneered. “But the fact of the matter still remains. Only I truly know you, Shulk. You are mine. From the moment of your rebirth, the moment I, your benevolent creator, chose to let you stand and breathe again, you were mine.”

“I belong to nobody, and I never will. None of the people of Bionis or Mechonis belong to you, either. We are our own selves, we decide our own futures! You are nothing but a fake.” Shulk cried.

Zanza looked up at the Homs, his eyes stony, calculating. Sinister. “Foolish bug. I was there for _everything_. I know of all your struggles, your inner turmoil. I was there at your beginning, guided by the worthless disciple Dickson, there during the loss and anguish, part of you on all of your pitiful adventures with your insignificant friends. With you during the fall of the weakling Dunban, one not worthy of the title of ‘Hero’, steering you in the direction of the Monado and the power it held… the power _you_ were so curious to uncover.”  
He stretched his arms wide, even in his weakened state. “I gave you life in death.”

Shulk was silent, stewing in rage.

“I knew of all of your trivial problems. Every little bother… torn between the two most important to you—”

“Stop.” Shulk interrupted, his voice cold.

“Your childhood sweetheart, the lovely Fiora… or maybe your best friend, the one who’d always been there for you, thoughtful, stubborn Reyn…”

“ _Stop_.” Shulk hissed, his frustration rising as the True Monado still refused to budge, frozen in space as the exchange between god and boy continued on.

“You never did choose, did you?” Zanza faked a pitying expression, the corners of his mouth turning upward in a gleeful, sharp grin. “What a shame. Both are—”

“ _Enough_!” Shulk screamed. “You… you’re nothing but a liar, a man who thinks he can control whatever he desires, right until the very end. A false god!” He looked away, unable to meet Zanza’s eyes. What did this so-called god know of him? Of Fiora or Reyn? His words were nothing but desperation, an attempt at weakening Shulk’s resolve. 

Zanza, pleased with his success in getting under Shulk’s skin, closed his eyes briefly.  
“But, hear me, disciple… what if you needn’t choose?”

Shulk turned his head only the slightest bit, brow still furrowed and mouth set in a perfectly straight line.

This was apparently enough for Zanza, who continued on. “Would it not be easier to submit to the passage of fate? Never would you suffer heartache, for you would be on the right path, destined to end up with the one chosen for you.”

Zanza watched Shulk with an unsettling smile.

The silence was broken by a harsh laugh, echoing in the distorted space.  
“You… you still don’t get it,” Shulk responded, his shoulders dropping in an almost exasperated sigh, “I don’t need the ‘passage of fate’, you, to decide my future. None of us do. All beings of the world should be free to walk toward the future, hand in hand, without any one person pulling the strings.”

He met Zanza’s gaze again with a renewed resolve.  
“This is where it ends for you, Zanza. Your future is no more!”

Zanza’s face fell into a savage scowl.

Slowly, the stars and space began to move once more, the pocket containing creator and creation once again encompassing all of the world. Shulk’s friends came into existence at his side, their limbs and mouths moving in slow motion.

The True Monado began its descent once again, Shulk’s hold tightening on the hilt as his other hand joined the first.

“Then so be it.”

In those last moments, Zanza and Shulk saw through each other. The ideals of both god and mortal blended into one. Master and vessel, meaningless… for there was no longer a god. No longer one power, not one omniscient being. The future had wavered on a tightrope, caught in a divide, but now it snapped tight, set back on course forever, in a place not nearly as precarious. As it always should have been. Thousands of futures, hundreds of beings, connected by the inevitably of fate. A fate decided by no one but themselves. Hand in hand.

The True Monado slammed through Zanza, blinding the universe. Ending the tyranny of man and the quest to be one step closer to the divine. Unraveling time and breaking the world into two—to be reborn as one.

Backed by Fiora, backed by Reyn, by Melia, Dunban, Riki and Sharla, Shulk created his own world, a world to rise from the ashes of the one before it.  
A world without gods.

  


* * *

  


A sunset over the mountainous remains of the Bionis, scattered throughout a salty, sparkling sea. A hand in Fiora’s, his back against Reyn’s, Shulk finally understood — he had never needed to choose.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading! Feedback is greatly appreciated <3


End file.
